Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. The Dhamma Points Inside
     … You ask yourself, “How does this apply to my mind?” In particular, “How does this apply to the problem of my mind, in which I’m creating suffering for myself?” It’s called appropriate attention. You take the lessons you learn from the Dhamma that you’ve heard in talks, and also from the Dhamma you notice just as you go through the day … 
  3. Don’t Leak Out Your Ears & Eyes
    We sit here with our eyes closed, trying to gather our attention inside to be with the breath, thinking of the breath as a whole-body process: the energy flowing through the nerves and the muscles that allows the air to come in, the air to go out—the oxygen exchange that helps keep us alive. And this can be very nourishing. The trick … 
  4. No One Size Fits All
     … He just keeps churning out food, which the master may like or may not like, but the master finally decides he’s sick and tired of this cook because the cook isn’t paying any attention. The cook who pays attention to what the master seems to like and who provides more of that: That’s the cook who gets rewarded. So try to … 
  5. The Evening News
     … Someone else is doing something important, whereas our time isn’t important so we should pay attention to what they have to say. This is the opposite of what the Buddha has to tell us, which is that the processes shaping your life are happening right here right now. And they’re not just happening—you’re involved in them. You’re willing them … 
  6. Fear & Insecurity
     … So it’s no wonder that these are the things that grab our attention right away. But, the Buddha says, those aren’t the things to be afraid of. The real thing to be afraid of is that you’re going to do something unskillful—particularly in trying to protect this identity you’ve taken on, to ward off whatever you think is going … 
  7. Lessons in Fabrication
     … And in that field of seeds, we have our choice as to which ones we want to pay attention to, which ones we water with our attention. Then we have our intentions in the present moment that put together those potentials and turn them into an actual experience. Like right now: You’re focused on the breath. The fact that you have this body … 
  8. The Big Picture
     … Pay a lot of attention to that. Verbal fabrication is the way you talk to yourself, what the Buddha calls directed thought and evaluation. You choose a topic to think about, and then you make comments, ask questions. Pay attention to that, too. Keep it focused on the breath. And there’s mental fabrication, perceptions—the labels you put on things—and then feelings … 
  9. Staying in Position
     … Give your full attention to those. In other words, you don’t have to claim the whole body as yours. If the pain wants to have your knee, let it go ahead and have the knee. Make sure that you get out of the line of fire. Then, as your chosen spot gets more and more comfortable, you can think of the comfort spreading … 
  10. Seeing Through Your Defilements
     … Where is it most prominent? Focus your attention there. It may not be on the air coming in and out of the nose. It may be the movement in the chest or the movement of the stomach. But wherever it’s clearest to see, focus your attention there. And then ask yourself, “Is it comfortable?” If you’re not sure, you can try different … 
  11. The Karma of Ideas
     … Often it’s these elements of perception, attention, and intention: the ideas you hold in mind, the things you focus on as important, and what you want to do as a result. So as you decide to keep the Buddha’s shoulds in mind, that changes your intention. You hold on to these, as opposed to the shoulds of the world, and you find … 
  12. Your Quiet Corner
     … This is where you also bring in the quality of ardency, which means you really pay attention to this, you have a sense of the preciousness of this quiet corner. You respect it. You don’t toss it away for whatever else comes up in the mind. No matter how compelling, no matter how important other things may seem, right now nothing else is … 
  13. All Four Tetrads at Once
     … It says that when you pay attention to the breath, the act of paying attention generates a feeling—or is a feeling, the text says—but basically the act of attention helps to fabricate a feeling, what’s called a feeling not-of-the-flesh. As for the mind, it says that there’s no mindfulness of breathing without mindfulness and alertness. And as … 
  14. Still
     … So, you move your attention down. Again, try not to have the sense that you’re up in the head looking down into the chest, say. Try to be in the chest. Try to be in the abdomen, wherever you choose as your spot. Notice that there’s an awareness already there. You don’t have to impose your notions of breath on it … 
  15. Admitting Mistakes
     … It requires skill, it requires attention, and not just thinking, “Still, still, still, still, still.” You’ve got to notice where you are and what should be done—what the dangers are in the position you’re currently in and what can be done to prevent them. Or if you find yourself slipping off into one of the extremes, what you can do to … 
  16. Feelings Not of the Flesh
     … You work on it because you’re trying to see the extent to which you do create your feelings, through the act of attention. Normally, as we go through the day, we have an instinctive way of focusing on some feelings and not on others. Some people have a tendency to focus more on pains, some people have a tendency to focus more on … 
  17. Self-starting
     … In fact, this is the topic of appropriate attention: looking at things in terms of cause and effect, action and result, and learning to explore the power we have to improve our minds, to improve our actions, to improve the results of our actions to see how far that can go. One of the emotions that’s supposed to be inspired by that reflection … 
  18. Tranquility & Insight
     … Why on earth would that be? Well, because you’re not paying attention, so you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ve paid much more attention to things outside, and not enough attention to your own mind. This is dangerous, because things outside can do only so much damage to you, but your own mind can do real damage. But at the … 
  19. Taking a Stance
     … It’s your own lack of attention that allows the breath to get uncomfortable. So pay attention and then learn to work with the breath. See what kind of rhythm feels good, because when the breath goes well it gives you strength, a sense of wellbeing, a sense of being nourished, around which all your other good qualities of mind can gather. When they … 
  20. Protecting the Mind from Itself
     … And you get very attentive to your intentions—because as the Buddha said, that’s where the karma is: It’s in the intention. You see this in the precepts. When you take the precepts against killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, and taking intoxicants, you can break these precepts only intentionally. If you step on a bug not even knowing that you did it … 
  21. True to the Breath
     … The problem is there our attention isn’t there all the time. We can go wandering around, or worse than wandering around: We jump around. As a result, the mind knows no peace. It keeps creating little worlds for itself and then suddenly finds itself in those worlds. They can take it many years, many miles away. And because those worlds are fabricated, after … 
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